Crome wins stage two of the New Zealand Cycle Classic

Media release

Monday, January 23, 2017

NEW ZEALAND NATIONAL TEAM CLAIM YELLOW JERSEY

- Crome wins stage two of the New Zealand Cycle Classic -

It was a bitter sweet stage win for Australian rider Sam Crome (IsoWhey Sports Swiss Wellness) during stage two of the New Zealand Cycle Classic held in the Wairarapa today.

Even though Crome won the race in 3hours 49minutes 02 seconds, it wasn’t enough for his team to retain the yellow jersey. Instead, a cohesive and powerful performance by the New Zealand National team saw James Oram finish the stage in second place but claim the overall yellow jersey as well as the King of the Mountain Jersey. JLT Condor’s Steve Lampier finished the stage in third place overall.

“We got the stage win but it was bitter sweet to lose the yellow jersey,” said Crome after his team mate Tim Roe won it yesterday. “I knew I had to bide my time and attack when I could. I got the stage win for the team but we haven’t got the yellow so we will aim to get that back now. It is what it is. It wasn’t enough, it was unfortunate. But we are still in it.”

Today’s hilly 147km stage of the UCI 2.2 tour is typically held on the penultimate day and is widely regarded as having the prestige to determine the overall tour winner. But for the 30th anniversary of the NZ Cycle Classic it was moved to day two and provided an interesting day out for riders.

Riding in fine and mostly dry conditions, the race quickly saw a trio of riders make a breakaway. The trio included Oram’s team mate Luke Mudgway, Nick Reddish (Oliver’s Real Food Racing) and Dylan Newberry (Team Mobius Future Racing) who at 43km were joined by Morgan Smith (Trust House). Riding as a foursome they did the hard graft over the first 100 kilometres to secure a substantial lead – at one point they were 3mins 35 seconds ahead of the peloton – and help get Oram in a good position for the Sprint and King of the Mountain stages.

At the base of the Admiral Hill and with 5km to go Oram, Crome and Lampier formed a tight trio heading up the hill while an active group including Hamish Bond, Michael Torckler (Blindz Direct) and Stage one winner Tim Roe (IsoWhey) kept the peloton in close contact. However with 1km to go Crome put down the hammer to take the stage win with Oram coming in seven seconds behind – but it was enough to take for New Zealand to take the yellow jersey.

“It was pretty hard, I thought yesterday I may have done a bit too much work trying to come across the group at the end, but today I wanted to make this race as hard as possible,” said Oram at the finish line.

“At the end getting away there and bridging across to Luke and staying away to the finish it was a perfect scenario really’ said Oram. “Brad (Evans), Hayden (McCormick) and Hamish (Schreurs) could sit pretty while Hayden showed he’s also good legs. So the rest of the week should be fantastic.”

Oram, who said he would not call himself a “pure” climber, was also thrilled to take the opportunity to grab a few extra points on the King of the Mountain stage and is now looking ahead to the next three days of hard racing.

“Our goals are now to be as aggressive as possible. It would still be nice to come away with a stage win.”

Two-time Olympic champion Hamish Bond, who came off his bike during yesterday’s stage spent last night nursing a sore and swollen shoulder, but he was pleased with his efforts today.

“It was a long way to ride to just go bananas for the last 20km but it was good. I tried to get a high tempo on the last two hill climbs and was able to then lead the bunch the first 2.5 km up Admiral Hill. The idea was that Mikey would have some punch sitting on the wheel getting a little bit of draft … trying to do what we did down south at Coronet Peak (Tour of Southland) but those guys who were out in front did really well and rode really hard. The rest of us probably played too many games on the flat. Quite often the rewards go to the bold and the brave and that’s what happened today. So it was good. I tried hard and didn’t fall off so that’s a bonus,” said Bond.

He said his shoulder was feeling better than he anticipated after being looked after by the Tour’s medical team. He is feeling confident about his performance during the rest of the week.

“I can’t see it (shoulder) getting worse throughout the week. Hopefully it will just get better and better.”

He is also looking forward to tomorrow’s stage three of the tour which will be raced between Masterton and the wine village of Martinborough. It includes a fast and furious 8 lap circuit around the town’s vineyards and town square – but Bond admits he’s not sure what to expect.

“I have no idea. I have no idea what I’m doing still that is why I love the hills because all you have to do is pedal hard and it sort of takes all the tactics out of it, you can either go faster or you can’t,” admitted Bond. “You know the flats? I might try something, but I’ll just listen to what Mike tells me. He’s got a lot of experience and it’s a privilege riding with him and for the Blindz team. If he tells me to go, I’ll go until I can’t pedal anymore.”

The New Zealand Cycle Classic is a five-stage, elite international men’s road cycling race staged entirely in the Wairarapa. It is the only Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) sanctioned race to be held in New Zealand in 2017.

Being held simultaneously is Huri Huri: Wairarapa’s Bike Festival which celebrates the Wairarapa’s bike-friendly roads, tracks and trails; the people that ride on them and the bikes they ride. The 2017 Festival (www.hurihuri.co.nz) has a variety of events and activities held across the region, catering to all levels of involvement in biking and to all ages. These include the Town to Tide multisport race; the Castlepoint Station family fun ride; Pedal for Parkinsons road cycle; mountainbike workshops and a kids programme.

For more information please visit www.cycletournz.com.

RESULTS FROM STAGE 2 OF THE NEW ZEALAND CYCLE CLASSIC:

1st Sam Crome (IsoWhey Sports Swiss Wellness)

2nd James Oram (New Zealand National Team)

3rd Steve Lampier (JLT Condor)

Yellow Jersey: James Oram (New Zealand National Team)

KOM Jersey: James Oram (New Zealand National Team)

Sprint Jersey: Luke Mudgway (New Zealand National Team) and Robert McCarty (JLT Condor) are joint leaders, but Luke will wear the jersey tomorrow

U23 Jersey: Alex West (Team Skoda)

Most Aggressive Jersey: Dylan Newberry (Mobius Future Racing)

ENDS

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